In December of 2011, I was a typical 30 year old; pregnant with her second child and eagerly awaiting his arrival to grow our family from three to four. Late in the evening of December 8th, the wait was over. He was here! And boy did he shake our world upside down, every which way. There was speculation right after his birth, and just one week later, it was confirmed. Our sweet baby boy was born with achondroplasia, the most common type of dwarfism. Dwarfism! In my family? Who would have thought? Not me, not anyone really. It was a shock. That shock didn’t last long though. He was a happy baby and, thankfully, healthy, and seemed to fit just perfectly into his new family.

Now, almost 2 ½ years later, that initial feeling of shock and confusion seems like so, so long ago. And dwarfism doesn’t at all seem like that unheard of, obscure thing that it did at first. It’s just a regular part of our family.

Declan is the happiest, brightest, most loving little boy I’ve ever known. His big sister, Makenna, dotes on him and is eager to teach him everything she knows. They are also really good at fighting and yelling at one another, just like most other siblings out there.

As a single mom to an average sized daughter and short statured son, my family is nothing as I envisioned it 2 ½ years ago. Yet somehow…it seems exactly as it should. Just perfect.

-Tammy Isaachsen